Avanti 63R1025

[mfg]

Heard through the grapevine that Studebaker Avanti 63R1025, the HOT ROD MAGAZINE R3 road test car has been sold.....Anyone out there happen to know who purchased that rare Avanti?

[Mrelmtow]

Maybe!🤣

[mfg]

3 hours ago, Mrelmtow said:

Maybe!🤣

Hey that's GREAT!!...you now own one of the "rare ones", right up there with #8 & #9!....I was thinking that Nels Bove might have ended up with it, as he has a taste for the rarest and the most desirable postwar Studes.

Hopefully you'll return its original 'Avanti Turquoise" exterior paint......and bring it back to HOT ROD MAGAZINE condition.......Best of luck, and KEEP US INFORMED!!....Ed

[silverstude]

Yes

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by silverstude

[Mrelmtow]

15 hours ago, mfg said:

Hey that's GREAT!!...you now own one of the "rare ones", right up there with #8 & #9!....I was thinking that Nels Bove might have ended up with it, as he has a taste for the rarest and the most desirable postwar Studes.

Hopefully you'll return its original 'Avanti Turquoise" exterior paint......and bring it back to HOT ROD MAGAZINE condition.......Best of luck, and KEEP US INFORMED!!....Ed

It will be!

[8E45E]

We would love to see this car at MCACN (Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals) in Chicago this November.

Craig

[mfg]

A very interesting Studebaker engine is under the hood of this Avanti!!!!!!

[Mrelmtow]

On 1/12/2022 at 7:16 AM, 8E45E said:

We would love to see this car at MCACN (Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals) in Chicago this November.

Craig

I doubt it will be ready by then.

[mfg]

2 hours ago, Mrelmtow said:

I doubt it will be ready by then.

Yes, there's a bit of work to be done there...but at least the interior (as I remember) is in decent shape, and all the rare Granatelli goodies were present and accounted for!

[Mrelmtow]

Although the interior is in very good shape, it is the incorrect color (black). I do have a full turquoise color interior and carpet set ordered.

[mfg]

That sounds good!...and perhaps some Studebaker Avanti owner out there who can't afford new seat covers may be interested in those black ones!

[8E45E]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:48 PM, Mrelmtow said:

I doubt it will be ready by then.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

We are hoping to have a number of 'significant' Avantis at MCACN this year, including the last (Studebaker) Avanti made.

Craig

[Mrelmtow]

1 hour ago, 8E45E said:

Please keep us posted on your progress.

We are hoping to have a number of 'significant' Avantis at MCACN this year, including the last (Studebaker) Avanti made.

Craig

Will do.

[paul shuffleburg]

What are the two gauges under the dash? I don't remember seeing them before.

[mfg]

23 hours ago, paul shuffleburg said:

What are the two gauges under the dash? I don't remember seeing them before.

Prior owner said the Granatelli's installed them...One of the gauges measures fuel pressure....They were concerned that the fuel mixture may lean out under high boost conditions causing internal engine damage.

[Mrelmtow]

The Avanti has been stripped of everything and is heading to the body shop! Next will be refreshing the engine and trans!

 

[mfg]

Methinks 63R1025 went to a very good home!

[pantera928]

1 hour ago, mfg said:

Methinks 63R1025 went to a very good home!

I agree! Cant wait to see more progress photos

[mfg]

When the engine is opened, it sure would be nice to know (once and for all) the bore/stroke of that 'Granatelli' powerplant !

[Geoff]

I can tell you how I discovered what it would have to be. I created a spreadsheet that has the constant (pi \ 4) and the equation for displacement. I entered the number of cylinders, the Studebaker bore of 3.5625", and the spreadsheet spit out 3.74957" as the necessary stroke to give an even 299 cu. in. V8. From there it was a pretty easy decipher that 3.75" would fit.

I also found in reading articles online that the Paxton crew had stroked Studebaker engines out to 4" plus; I even think I read a page where one was punched to 4.25" of stroke (that'd make a nice Champ engine). After I read that (I wish I took a screenshot or bookmarked the site), it cemented in my mind that the Santa Monica guys could have easily stroked RS1021's crank.

[VtMike]

The prior owner said that Andy G. told him he'd stroked 1025, rather than bore it out to 299, in an effort to give it a little more torque and better performance during the Hot Rod Mag tests.  But I believe our experts said that stroking rather boring doesn't actually give it any additional torque. 

[Geoff]

I'm prior owner's son. I drove 1025 to high school (and regularly summer '95- spring '97), and then a little bit to college in the SF Bay Area before I wrecked it on a Livermore back road fall '97. It experienced quite a few "down days" as it didn't make for a reliable daily driver, but while it was up, it was tons of fun! Dad in East Bay, Mom in South Bay. Dad would have me pick up my younger brother "every other weekend" in it. 580 to 680 to 280 was a fun commute with or without rush hour traffic.

Anyway, the thinking at the time it was developed was, longer stroke did give a low end power bump. Vince and Andy had said 1025 was the quickest accelerating Avanti they had, that's why they loaned that particular car to magazine testers. Also, think of it this way: they'd already achieved 299 cubic inches via an increase in bore, so if you're aiming for different results than the +0.060 cars, the only remaining alteration is an increase in stroke. There's a third way to make a Studebaker V8 299 cubic inches, and it's an exactly square bore and stroke of 3 5/8 inches.

Edited October 22, 2022 by GeoffC312
Corrected a grammatical error

[Mrelmtow]

A few pictures of the progress so far! The body has been blasted and is off the frame. A few interesting things have been found, some known, some not. I did not see this since they were glassed over but there were holes drilled into the fender and a bracket was on the bottom for the supercharger oil tank once installed, tank now missing. SIDE NOTE, if anyone has or knows of any of these tanks for sale, please let me know. I also found a reliable source of information regarding Granetelli R3 and R4 engines including a picture of the car at the track when loaned out to Hot Rod magazine for the article. It showed the dealer plates it wore and I was able to order up a reproduction set! I did find out that although the engine was never stamped, other than the factory numbers, it was assigned a "A" number by Paxton. Despite all the work done, I have not yet opened up the engine. When I do (hopefully soon if work permits), I will be posting pictures and findings.

Mike

 

[Geoff]

I am interested in all of the internal specifications. As in, fill out a blank cam card with RS1021 information. Also noteworthy, what are the valve spring details? With today's tech., could we do with 2 springs what was originally done with 3 springs?

My angle? I'd like to build up a reproduction of RS1021 that doesn't guilt me about adding miles. Had we known much sooner the history of 25, it wouldn't have been driven. My vision during the middle '90s was, once the car rolled to 100k miles, tear it down and restore it. I felt the zeroing of the odometer was a good pause point.

My current project is due to my love of lateral-g vehicles, I'm working an '85 into a modernized homage of the Avanti GT. A manually shifted and modernized version of 25 would be a cool juxtaposition to that build.

[mfg]

Mrelmtow....Looks like 63R1025 is coming along nicely!

Suggest that you proceed with caution when purchasing the 'Avanti Turquoise' paint......

That's my favorite Stude Avanti exterior color....however, I've seen more than one Avanti painted that color which looked WAY too blue, whereas the original Studebaker color really was more of a turquoise...Good luck!